Who Are the Gigabit Internet Subscribers? Study Released by FTTH Council Explores Existing Gigabit to the Home

Early adopters of gigabit fiber optic service are online for three times the daily average of Internet users and tend to have relatively complex home networks supporting five or more devices, according to a study released by the Fiber-to-the-Home Council Americas.

The report, provided to the Council by Telecom Thinktank and RVA LLC, offers a glimpse into the small but growing community of gigabit Internet users who are receiving their service from one of more than a dozen telecoms that now offer the service in locations throughout the world. Gigabit subscribers were surveyed to determine their motivation and utilization of the ultra-high speed broadband access.

Telecom Thinktank and RVA found that the current crop of gigabit subscribers are:

• Online an average of 8 hours per day, compared with the U.S. Internet user average of 2.5 hours per day.
• The "earliest of early adopters," with relatively complex home networks consisting of five or more network devices. In the U.S., 12 percent of gigabit users had 10 or more networked devices in their homes.
• Content creators, as Hong Kong Broadband's traffic measurements show its gigabit subscribers using three times the upload bandwidth when compared to their download use. Upload speed is critical for distributing HD photos and videos, efficient "cloud computing" and virtual presence video conferencing.